


The Story of Before

by justhavesex



Series: Domestic Idiots [2]
Category: Gintama
Genre: M/M, memory loss troupe, the story of how they got married, they domestic af
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2017-05-23
Updated: 2017-05-23
Packaged: 2018-11-04 03:38:37
Rating: Not Rated
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 2,276
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/10982565
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/justhavesex/pseuds/justhavesex
Summary: It occurs to Gintoki suddenly that maybe they aren't dating, because they must be married. It suddenly makes much more sense.





	The Story of Before

**Author's Note:**

> It's part two to 'A Toast to the Past' but it's actually the before story to 'A Toast to the Past' because it's the story of before they got married. You don't really need to read one or the other to read one. Doesn't need to be read in order.
> 
> Anyways, have a greaT DAY

 

 

 

"Eh? Lost his memory?" Hijikata mutters, glancing to where Gintoki has been sat down, idly staring at Sadaharu who's nibbling on his food. He should have known something was off with the idiot when he didn't receive his daily reminder to come over later tonight, because Gintoki is always a pushy bastard when it comes to the nights they're supposed to be meeting. He exhales a puff of smoke. "Are you fucking kidding me right now?"

"Look Gin-chan," Kagura drawls, sucking in the last of her sukonbu, "It's your homo lover. You disgusting homo."

"Eh homo?" Gintoki repeats, eyes blinking over at Hijikata. "The two of us are dating?"

"Don't say dating that's disgusting," Hijikata adds back, frowning. Because it really is. Him and Gintoki aren't dating, they never have been. They just get together drink, eat and fuck sometimes. That isn't _dating_. It doesn't matter that he mostly lives with the dead-fish bastard. There isn't any real emotional attachment to each other, not really. "Well if he's out of commission I'm going back to the barracks to sleep, I don't want to deal with this."

"No!" Kagura says, tossing up her hands, "Gin-chan needs his memory jerked awake and nothings better than you two! Punch him! Scream at him, go _Toshi_!"

Hijikata inhales, glances to where Gintoki is staring at him blankly, and exhales. "Ha? No way. I'm not kind enough to drag around his lost ass all day, I'm busy."

"Aren't you two dating this is cruel even for you, Hijikata-san." Shinpachi adds disapprovingly.

"Like I said, don't say ' _dating_ ' that's disgusting."

Kagura huffs, finger shoved abruptly in her nostril. "How cruel, Toshi-kun, your lover is indisposed and helpless and your just going to leave him alone? What if another woman comes around and seduces him as he's all blanked faced and stupid? What then _Tosh_ _i_ , you'll lose the only person who'll ever bother to stay around your nicotine addicted self."

"Dark!" Shinpachi hisses, "Too dark, Kagura-chan!"

"Oi, Gintoki." He really hates this, but she's right. Gintoki is the perfect match for him, doesn't care if they stay in contact, rarely see each other and have little to no emotional attachment to each other. Where else is he supposed to find such a careless lover? But _fuck_ , they aren't dating. He shouldn't have to take care of Gintoki when he's indisposed because they don't have a serious relationship like that, it's supposed to be casual and fleeting, not heavy and _serious_. "Remember right now."

"Um," Gintoki says, voice a pitch higher than usual, "I'm sorry. So we were dating? What's your name?"

"Toshi," Kagura adds.

" _No_ ," Hijikata grits out. "Hijikata Toushiro, call me Toshi and I'll cut your head off clean, bastard."

"R—right, Toushiro."

"Well we'll leave you two to it," Shinpachi says, abruptly standing and glancing over at them. "Please call us if Gin-san remembers anything."

Hijikata has always hated arriving when the brats are still around especially on the days Gintoki has told them to scram, it's always mildly annoying because it's as though they just _know_ him and Gintoki are gonna have sex, and it's fucking awkward no matter how much Gintoki says it doesn't matter. It's because the bastard is shameless, hes pretty sure. "Just remember without consent, even if your dating, is bad. Scum."

"Get out!" Hijikata hisses back, glowering until he hears the certain ' _click_ ' of the front door locking. He glances abruptly at Gintoki, suddenly unnerved by the silence. Sure they sometimes sit in prolonged silence like an old couple but that's after sex and they're both exhausted, not when Hijikata first arrives. Its unsettling. "Sheesh, they're just cheeky brats."

"How long have we been dating?"

Hijikata blinks four times. When they started _dating_? Never, he wants to spit out, but the Gintoki in front of him looks so pure and mild he just doesn't have it in him to shoot him down completely. "When?" _When_? The first time they kissed when they were drunk? Or was it after that when they were still pretending to be drunk as Gintoki cradled his face and kissed him on the top of the couch, eyes clear. He exhales a puff of smoke, frowning. Was it the time they gave each other birthday presents for the first time, or was it the time Gintoki visited him in the hospital, peeling an apple as he frowned at Hijikata like a wet cat, muttering something about how Hijikata is too old to still be giving him heart attacks. The thoughts leave him still, unknowingly, their relationship has went from casual fucking to something oddly close to serious. "Shit, it's been almost 3 years now."

"But we aren't dating?"

"No," Hijikata agrees, there never was any ' _wanna get hitched_?' at any point in their relationship, they don't tie each other down like that. Just a casual acceptance of each other's existence. "Three years, huh?" But three years isn't a 'casual acceptance' at that rate. Three years is almost as bad as vowing at an altar each other's love and loyalty till death, it's too serious. He should have known they were past the point of casualness when Gintoki had started messaging him daily and people started to refer to them as each other's partner. It was beyond casual the moment that old woman had said, ' _Hijikata-san? Ah, Gintoki's lover._ ' "Fuck, how annoying."

"How did we get together?"

"Alcohol. We were both pissed drunk." Not a complete lie, they _were_ pissed drunk when Hijikata had whispered into the shell of Gintoki's ear that he'd like to see the bastard kiss him, if he could, and they were still pissed drunk the first 20 minutes of making-out. But as they walked back to Gintoki's place, it was becoming slowly more and more of a pretense in order to keep the night going. "What's with the 20-20 questions, huh, asshole?"

"I'm just curious how we got together," Gintoki defends quickly, "I don't think I'm gay so—"

"Doesn't matter it isn't like we're some gushy ass couple, do what you want but I'm going to punch you as soon as you get your memory back. Fucking bothering me all day yesterday not to forget that I'm supposed to come over tonight and you fucking lose your memory? Honestly."

"Ah, we texted?"

"Hm? Yeah. I guess."

Gintoki follows through on it, honestly when Kagura and Shinpachi had first told him he has a lover that'll probably be coming to see him tonight he had been doubtful. From everything he heard he was a scum-bag, why would a woman even date him? Now it makes sense, his lover is a rugged man that claims they aren't even _dating_. What are they then? Fuck buddies? He frowns, opening up his phone.

 _No, that doesn't seem right either_...

_To Mayo-idiot:_

_Buy me some chocolate on your way over mayo dick I'm too broke to get my own_.

That was three months ago, the more he scrolls back it's just him messaging Hijikata and him mainly being ignored. The few times he does get replies its curt and to the point.

_From Mayo-idiot:_

_One of my associates saw you with that terrorist again, stop dragging my image through the mud you fuckturd_.

Terrorist? He associated with _terrorists?_ "What's your job?"

"Shinsengumi." Hijikata replies curtly. "Having fun reading through all your messages? God you send them relentlessly even though I'm always telling you not to bother me while I'm working. Especially when you're friends with fucking Joui and people know you were one, asshole. Kondo-san is always taking heat about you and I being together."

Gintoki glances at him at this, confused. If it's so troublesome, why do they stay together? He pauses, glancing down at the message he had sent roughly around 4 months ago, and suddenly understands something, or at least he _feels_ like he understands. At the very least, he feels as though he really did like this guy.

_To Mayo-idiot:_

_Stay safe._

"Ha, I can really feel my love looking through this messages though." Gintoki grumbles, wondering why Hijikata actually looks _surprised_. Had they never told each other they love each other? Or is he getting the wrong vibe? Maybe they had an love-hate relationship? Maybe only he was in love and was just barely keeping Hijikata around?

"Love," Hijikata repeats, putting out his cigarette in the cleaned out ash tray on the table, "That's one way of putting it."

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

They end up sleeping together but in a completely platonic way. 

Cause, as Gintoki learns in sudden surprise, Hijikata pretty much  _lives_ with them. There's a bunch of clothes of his in Gintoki's room, a bunch of his shit, and he even had his toiletries in the washroom. They live together. But aren't dating. 

It feels weird, but familiar at the very least, watching as Hijikata's chest rises and falls throughout half the night before he falls asleep with him. In the morning, Shinpachi kicks him awake and tells him to wake Hijikata cause he has work. He does, in gentle pushing motions, surprised when Hijikata blearily wakes up with half-lidded eyes and mutters something like ' _God you reek, old man_ ' before dragging him down and kissing him. Gintoki stays absolutely motionless throughout the entire thing, Hijikata stretching himself out and yawning. "I'll bring the brats dinner tonight since I'm off earlier."

"Oh, okay."

Hijikata pauses, before frowning as though remembering something. "Oh right, your memory. Sorry."

"No it's okay," so they were at a level of basic domestic idleness. He had thought they would be more the aggressive type of couple that is only together for the fun of it, with no real ties keeping them together. So he is, on some level, a good person if he can manage to keep a stable relationship for _three years_. "Will you still come over tonight?"

"Yeah I might as well, since you're an amnesic poor bastard how else are you supposed to feed yourselves? Plus, I fucking live here."

Just like that he's here then gone with a puff of smoke and Gintoki watches carefully as he goes, frowning. He doesn't know how to explain it, but something feels weird. Apparently neither of the children that're living with him find it weird at all as Hijikata makes his way out, telling them not to break any buildings, today, he says and asks what they want for dinner. Which neither really offer any serious requests aside from ' _egg and rice and sushi! Bring sushi_!'

So it's common for his lover?—he decides that since it's Hijikata's wish, he won't put labels on the relationship—to bring dinner for them after work, because nobody finds it very uncommon. So it _is_ a serious relationship.

It occurs to Gintoki suddenly that maybe they aren't _dating_ but that they must be _married_.

"I see," Gintoki says, plopping his fists into his palm, "That's why he said we aren't dating. Why didn't you two tell me?"

"Eh? Tell you what Gin-chan?" Kagura asks, sprawled across the couch as she itches at her stomach. He's started to get the feel for how his life is generally like, they wake up way past the morning, lounge around, Hijikata or somebody else visits, and generally something will explode or reek havoc. He pauses, looking down at his hands for a wedding band but can't find one: but that isn't alarming, he could have lost it due to the accident, or maybe because of his chaotic life he puts it somewhere safer rather than on his wedding finger. "I don't know what that mayo-brained dog is thinking about."

Now that he thinks about it, there isn't any wedding pictures either. "Are there any wedding pictures?"

"Vending machines?"

"Wedding photos!"

Shinpachi pauses, glasses gleaming oddly. "Eh? Of who?"

"Eh? Toushiro and I, right?"

"Eh?" Shinpachi says, just as Kagura rubs her booger onto her thigh looking oddly disinterested with the whole scenario. "Married? You and Hijikata-san? No _no no no no_ Gin-san! You two barely even talk without getting angry at each other, actually it's a mystery why you two are even dating to the entire neighborhood, just last week Hijikata-san literally tried to stab you with his sword! He was seriously going to kill you Gin-san, _seriously!_ "

"You two are like schoolyard bullies too awkward to admit you like each other," Kagura adds in almost sagely.

"Are you sure? We live together and I was looking through our text messages and it seems like we're oddly domestic," Gintoki frowns, flicking open his phone before shrugging. This entire situation is difficult to understand, actually his entire life is confusing at this point. Exactly _what_ about him is good to the people around him? He pauses, flicking open his phone and opening the most recent message:

_From Mayo-idiot:_

_I'll take you guys out to ramen for dinner._

"See?"

"Gross," Kagura mutters sourly, rolling onto her stomach.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

His memory abruptly comes back as him and Hijikata are flicking through channels, Kagura already asleep and Shinpachi already back home.

"Oh," he exhales, blinking away the blurriness as everything suddenly clicks in place. "What did you mean by ' _that's one way of putting it_ ', Oogushi-kun?"

"Ah," Hijikata says, elbow jabbing into his right side and Gintoki already knows it's a subtle sign for Gintoki to do something like hold his hand or cuddle, because he _remembers_. He drags Hijikata from the waist into his side, barely managing to suppress a laugh when Hijikata squirms away, glaring. "So you got your memory back? Rotten bastard."

"Hm," he hums in agreement.

It suddenly hits him then.

"Oi, Toushiro."

"What?"

"We should get married."

 

 


End file.
